It’s not enough to have no primary. The also want it to be too late for this. Particularly since getting on the ballot as an independent requires three times the signatures as getting on the ballot as a party hack.

INDEPENDENT PETITIONS July 11 First day for signing nominating petitions. §6-138(4)

Re: curb cuts, we should allot some Move NY toll revenue and Millionaire Tax funding for extensive street reconstructions to add curb ramps, subway elevators, plus bulb outs, bike and bus lanes, seating, etc. Use that funding to dramatically improve conditions for everyone who gets around without a car (and everyone who walks from the subway) not just for the subway itself

Pft. We will be lucky to get one elevator from all that additional revenue.

Joe R.

Sad but probably true. 🙁

Jesse

This thrillist list is perfect.

rao

It is a good list, and it is harder to follow the rules than one might think!

The one missing rule is that whenever you slow down or stop in order to obey any of the other rules, always glance over your shoulder to see if another cyclist is behind you. They probably aren’t interested in slowing down, almost definitely won’t expect you to stop, and may get pissy with you for doing so. A friend was knocked off his bike by another cyclist in this situation.

Joe R.

I’ll add another rule-if at all possible avoid riding during times when streets are crowded. It’s unhealthy for the cyclist. It’s stressful for the cyclist. And you’re adding to the congestion. So unless you absolutely need to be riding during busy times, best to ride some other time. That goes double for recreational rides. People looking to go fast or log miles should probably consider riding between maybe 9 PM and 6 AM. I personally love riding those times.

William Lawson

I heartily disagree. I find riding in the city in the late hours to be more hair raising. First of all, emptier streets mean more speeding assholes. I can handle a vehicle overtaking me with inches to spare when they’re doing 20-25 in slow moving congestion traffic. When they zip past at 50-60mph at night I almost have a heart attack. Secondly, there are more drunk driving scumbags on the roads at night. In some parts of the city drunk driving is endemic. Not to mention of course the Action Carting drivers and other garbage truck driving skuzzbuckets.

Nor do I believe that cyclists add to the congestion. They take up a very small part of the road, and are able to weave their way around gridlocked traffic very efficiently.

Joe R.

Cyclists don’t add much to congestion, but I’m thinking of certain times and places, like the East River bridges during rush hour, where the bike lanes are already crowded. Additional bikes certainly add to it under those circumstances.

I hear you about vehicles zipping past at high speeds. In truth, I don’t get much of that given the times and places I ride. I tend to ride very late, like 2AM. There aren’t many vehicles on the road to start with at those times. And I tend to stick to multilane arterials where vehicles tend to pass me in the left lane. I also keep good situational awareness of whatever is behind me. If someone is coming up fast with seemingly no intention to go left, I duck into an open space to get out of the way (or just turn off the road). Also, traffic moves pretty fast by me even during daylight hours, plus there’s a lot more of it.

The bottom line is there may or may not be a tradeoff here. The more suburban the area, the less likely it is that vehicles are moving significantly slower during the day. That’s certainly the case here in eastern Queens, probably in most of Staten Island as well. My rare day rides here are almost always a lesson in aggravation. It’s sort of like get stuck behind a double-parked car here, wait for a gap in traffic to go around it, maybe hit the brakes for a jaywalker, and now I’m stuck at a red light I easily would have made if not for the aforementioned nonsense. Can’t go through it that time of day either due to heavy cross traffic, so 45 seconds down the drain. Rinse and repeat this same scenario every few blocks. After a few miles of this I just feel like turning around back to home. Remember I ride for recreation. If it’s not enjoyable I’d rather do it during a time when it is. That’s rarely during the day, except maybe on a lazy Sunday in midwinter when hardly anyone is out.

Jesse

Word. That’s very woke of you. It’s the flip side of the “We ARE Traffic” chant from Critical Mass. It’s not just that you are entitled to be there; your presence actually causes the same externalities as everyone else, albeit on a much MUCH smaller scale.

AnoNYC

The E 34th St stop is better than the E 64th St stop for the Soundview route. Connection to the SBS M34 and walk or bike to E 33rd St station or GCT. Opens up much of midtown to the route. When the SAS eventually expands down that way in the distant future, riders will have that too.

E 64th St however would have given riders access easier access to the Q and F trains though.

Add an LIC stop and you add pretty good access to Queens.

These ferries are great for people who are willing to bring a bicycle or use Citi Bike.

Joe R.

Well, I like to be fair since we’re always talking about the externalities cars cause. Yes, bikes certainly cause them in miniscule amounts relative to motor vehicles but put enough bikes on the streets and there will be noticeable externalties. Most of the time though an additional bike has a negligible effect.

AMH

It’s certainly noticeable on the HR Greenway. There is often so much cycle traffic that a huge crowd bunches up at stoplights, taking much of the light cycle to get moving, only to repeat at the next light. The long cycles necessitated by the width of the W Side Hwy are much of the problem–north-south traffic has to stop for 30-60 seconds.

AMH

The Trump administration is starting to see the [Gateway] funding agreement as “as a giveaway program to two of America’s wealthiest states.”

Given that Trump is all about giveaways to the wealthy, there has to be a way to turn this into a reason for him to support Gateway.

bolwerk

I’d be willing to bet it’s more about sticking it to states that voted against him than it is about project efficacy, or even misplaced fiscal conservatism.

If he had a chance of putting New York and New Jersey in his column in 2020, he’d consider it. But remember when Bloomberg tried to help Bush win NYS? Didn’t go so well. I doubt anyone would try again.

It’s good but not perfect. The mention of the primacy of pedestrians at intersections is correct, as is the advice that we not block crosswalks.

But the bit about surrendering the Brooklyn Bridge is very bad, in that it expresses an acceptance of the current problems there as normal and inevitable. In practice I agree with the idea of avoiding the Brooklyn Bridge except during late nights, overnights, and early mornings. But we should not be resigned to the status quo; we should be pressing our representatives for a fix of the unacceptable current situation. With a little better infrastructure and a little better enforcement (the cops are already there, doing nothing), the pedestrians on the bridge could be encouraged to stay in the space that has been allotted to them. Most important is the fact that this would not impede these pedestrians from enjoying the world-famous landmark.

Also, the advice of always riding on the left side of a one-way street is highly questionable. There are some instances where doing so is preferable (I can think of one particular spot on my daily commute); but, in general, drivers expect cyclists on the right. We don’t help ourselves by springing extra surprises on those automobile-wielding incompetents who are barely paying attention in the first place. (Not to mention that the law mandates that we ride on the right side of a one-way street unless the street is at least 40 feet wide.)

Jesse

I think the solution on the Brooklyn Bridge is for a physically separated bike path, maybe by extending current overhead boardwalk or by reallocating one lane of car traffic. I actually prefer extending the boardwalk and putting up flexible bollards or something just because I even a physically separated path at car level would still be loud and stressful to ride through. And I agree that the Manhattan Bridge isn’t always the best substitute, considering that the Manhattan ends of each bridge are pretty far apart.

That said, I don’t think this list was intended to be about political agitation so much as it was just best practices so as to be safe and courteous to other people. He didn’t say to cede the Brooklyn Bridge entirely. Just adjust your expectations according to when you go and choose courtesy over asserting your rights. It seemed reasonable to me.

We’ll, it’s the “choose courtesy over asserting your rights” bit that I am at all on board with. If you’re going to take the Brooklyn Bridge (which I don’t recommend), then reminding the pedestrians in a very loud voice that they should not be in the bike lane is the way to go about it. However, the hassle of doing this is rarely worth it; which is why the Manhattan Bridge is always the better alternative during daytime and evening hours, as adding one mile to any given trip is negligible for a bicyclist.

As far as solutions go, it would be nice to think that the overhead path could be widened. But I strongly doubt that that is possible. Reallocating space on the roadway for bikes makes sense; but it’s unlikely that we’ll ever have a mayor who has the gumption to do that (unless someone clones the fearless Bloomberg). That leaves better enforcement of the rules that already exist, and better infrastructure in the form of some kind of barrier between the pedestrian lane and the bike lane.